January 18th
Read: 1 John 5:3-5; Matthew 21:18-22; Ezra 8:21-23,31; Ephesians 6:12-17
Sometimes the battlegrounds in our lives are on more than a personal scale. Perhaps they are against the systems of this world, the culture of our own times. The current system of education, for instance, draws ideas and thoughts and agendas from all areas of the world and presents them to our precious children as the truth. The powers at the national level in our country are openly flaunting their unholy appointments and the deviant life-styles of those who pervert truth and the human body by their sinful ways …. abortion, homosexuality, illicit sex. The media of press, television, radio, and movies exploits the minds and morals of everyone brought under its hypnotic spell. Religions which deny the very Lord Jesus Christ whom we worship and serve are waging open war in the name of democracy.
Are we so wrapped up in our own daily battles with the flesh that we have no energy or power in the battles with the world? Does God possess so little of our time, energy, and resources that we are not even asking Him to battle these things through our faith? “Faith is the victory that overcomes the world,” says an old hymn. The Apostle John puts it this way, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”
We need to be using our faith as a weapon in our ongoing battles with the world system. Losses in this battleground reflect in our daily lives in rebellious children, doubting, lack of care for our parents in their declining years, and failure to give from a willing heart to God’s work in our home churches and around the world. Do we trust the God who has saved us with His own blood on Calvary to wage battle against those who come against Him? Do we, like David, step up to be counted when a giant troubles God’s people? Do we, like Ezra, announce to the powers that be that our God is able to protect us from those who lie in wait to ambush us? Or do we sit in our comfort zones and allow George to do it, whoever George may be … perhaps someone from the enemy camp? Nehemiah had a commission from God. Had he listened to the enemy( who came to him with much logic) rather than heeding God’s command, he would have failed. God has given us a commission too … to witness to the lost and to build up His church. Is our faith so weak that the voice of the enemy sounds logical in our ears? Is our sword so dull and rusty from unuse that we are losing in the battlegrounds with the world?
POTENTIAL ENERGY
To endless faith I may attain!
There are no limits set!
God’s every blessing I may gain!
His Word says so, and yet–
My self-set boundaries still constrain,
And self-will doth forget
That endless power I can unchain
For all needs to be met.
Why can’t I every mountain move
From land into the sea?
Why can’t I struggle from the groove
That self has trenched for me?
My tool of faith I must improve
If ever I would be
The servant whom God would approve
With faith unchecked and free.
Prayer: Father, help me to recognize battle areas in the world around me and to stand for Christ wherever You may lead.